


Swap

by earlgreytea68



Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-09
Updated: 2017-06-09
Packaged: 2018-11-11 13:05:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11149026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/earlgreytea68/pseuds/earlgreytea68
Summary: There is a stranger on Arthur's porch apologizing for things that happened years ago.





	Swap

**Author's Note:**

> It's my birthday! So I wanted to post something sweet and cute and quick to commemorate. This definitely fits the bill: it's very short, and doesn't have much point to it, but I had this in my list of fic prompts and figured I'd give it a whirl.

“Hiya,” said the man standing on Arthur’s front porch when Arthur stepped outside to go to work. 

“What the fuck,” said Arthur in surprise, and clutched his keys between his fingers in weapon mode. 

“I am a friend of Harry’s,” said the man. 

“A friend of who?” asked Arthur. 

“Harry. I think you went on a couple of dates with him, like, three years ago or something.” 

Arthur stared. Then he thought, _Maybe I can just reason with this person instead of having to call the cops_. He said, “Okay. Great. Why don’t we walk off the porch together?” 

“Oh, sure,” said the man, beaming, trailing Arthur off the porch. 

Well, that was easy. Arthur said, “And now I’m going to go to work, and you can…go somewhere else.” 

The man said, “Wait, I haven’t finished my errand.” 

“Okay,” said Arthur, pulling out his cell phone so he could dial 911 more quickly, “I’m just going to—”

“Harry says he’s sorry he was a dick who just stopped returning phone calls and texts once you slept together. Which, frankly, _is_ a dick move, if I’d had you, I feel like the shagging would have just been the beginning.” 

The man gave him a frankly epic leer. Arthur paused in the process of calling the police to just gape for a second instead. Because now he remembered Harry, which, like, yeah, fuck him. And also, was this man now trying to pick him up? 

Arthur said suspiciously, “Why the fuck are you here apologizing for that?” 

“I agreed to do it in a swap party,” said the man. 

“A what?” 

“My friend had a party, you had to go with something you were willing to swap with someone else, only…I forgot, right? So I get to the party, and Harry has these totally fabulous VIP passes to Art Basel, like, who doesn’t want to go to _Art Basel_ , _VIP_ , am I right? So I really want these passes, but I’ve forgotten to bring anything to swap, so I just tell him that I’ll do one task that’s been hanging over his head for a while.”

Arthur lifted a skeptical eyebrow. “And he thought that was a good trade?” 

“I’m persuasive,” said Eeames. “Anyway, his one task hanging over his head was you.” 

Arthur kept staring. “ _I_ was his one task?” 

“I guess he felt really bad about it.” The man shrugged. “Stupid of him to give this task to me, though. Who’d pass up a chance to see someone like you again?” The man winked. 

Arthur rolled his eyes and said, “I’m not even sure whether or not to believe you.” 

“Would I make a story like that up?” asked the man. 

“That’s the only reason why I feel like maybe it might be the truth. And if you’re lying, what’s your motive?”

The man grinned at him. “Maybe my motive is to get someone to come with me as my date to Art Basel.” 

“I don’t even know your name,” Arthur pointed out. 

“Eames,” said the man. “My name is Eames. And I promise to be a total gentleman and still respond to your texts even after you put out.” 

“That’s a pretty low bar,” said Arthur. 

“And I just asked you to come to Miami with me for a first date. I’m a charming roller coaster.” 

“Oh, is that how you would describe what’s happening here?” asked Arthur. 

The man—Eames—never stopped grinning at him like he was the most hilarious thing he’d ever seen. He said, “Yeah. That’s how I would describe it.” 

Arthur heard himself say, “What if I’d rather start with coffee?” and it was such a stupid, stupid thing to say, except that Eames’s eyes lit up and Arthur couldn’t be angry with himself in the face of that expression. 

Eames said, “It’s a good start.”


End file.
